What happens when you get off schedule?

From the very beginning, I was pretty strict about staying on the schedule, and with Elle, I was told to wake her up every 3 hours for the first 3 months of her life, so we really stayed on the schedule perfectly—because even if she was still sleeping when it was time to eat—I woke her up. BUT…when Easton came along, he was never awake for the 3 hour feeding, so we adjusted him (while he was still in the hospital) to a 4 hour schedule. Then I did NOT wake him up when it was time to eat—I let him wake up—up to 30 minutes past—never beyond that. He always woke up before 4 ½ hours, I think I may have woken him up once or twice—but I did not have to make a habit of it. I think if consistently you are getting off of your 3 hour schedule due to the baby staying asleep—you might want to relook at the 3 hour schedule. Maybe they would eat better, stay awake better, and wake happier on a 4 hour schedule.
To adjust the schedule—like when you drop a middle of the night feeding, but they are not able to go all the way to the next scheduled time… I just “inched” my way there at each feeding. For example: Say I was feeding on a 3, 6, 9, 12 schedule and then I need to adjust to accommodate the 12 o’clock feeding at night being gone, but the afternoon 12 o’clock feeding is still there… Say my baby goes down at 9:30 after feeding at 9, and sleeps until 8 o’clock in the morning—a pretty good night obviously, but I am an hour behind schedule—so what I would do is feed the baby at 8…but then try to not feed the baby again until 11:30…either the wake time is a little longer, or the naptime for that one is a little longer…then I would feed at 11:30 and then try to feed again at 3 and would be back on my schedule for the evening routine. Sometimes that would happen weekly once a week—but it was just a little inching…You could also skip a feeding and then “inch” on the next one—I was just always anxious until I got back to my schedule…